You Could Be Happy
by certainslantoflight
Summary: During film, with flashbacks to earlier times. An old friend and ex lover shows up, disrupting the chemistry of the team and bringing up old memories. Arthur/OC


**A/N - This is an idea that has been bouncing around my head since I first saw the movie. I liked the idea of Arthur having this past that he shared with Eames and the Cobb's. Alas, I don't own Inception, or any of the characters. :( This is my first story, which I'm super duper excited about. I hope you enjoy!**

Chapter 1 - Ariadne

It started like any other day. Ariadne arrived at the warehouse, slightly out of breath from the walk. Her flat wasn't far, but the air was getting an autumn chill, giving her incentive to move just a little faster. The usual crowd was there; Yusef, who appeared to have burned his eyebrows off again; Arthur, busy writing in that damn black notebook he carried everywhere, and quietly listening to Cobb, who was absently spinning the top as he spoke. The only one missing was Eames, but it didn't come as much of a surprise. It was common knowledge that Eames spent most nights "researching", as he called it. Arthur called it using forgery as an excuse to get shitfaced and oogle pretty women in bars every night, while Cobb just ignored it. He had Mal and his children to worry about. Ariadne wasn't even sure that Yusef would notice if nobody showed up to work, so Eames lateness didn't bother him.

It wasn't until a couple hours later, when Ariadne was trying to figure out the proper location for emergency exits in the hotel, that Eames showed up. As usual, he looked like a colorblind 8 year old had picked up his outfit. He also looked slightly hungover and in desperate need of sleep, which was also par for the course. What was unusual this morning, was that he brought a woman with him. Ariadne only had a brief time to take it all in before events in the warehouse really picked up, but that moment was enough.

They walked in holding hands, Eames and this woman, and she was chattering away in rapid French. She had pulled her dark hair in a loose bun, and very little make up. Slender, she wore clothing that Ariadne found oddly reminiscent of Arthur; black slacks, a cream colored blouse and a wool jacket. Professional as hell, and the only real difference between the woman and Arthur was that she was striding along in 4 inch heels. The expression on her face was comfortable, care free. Watching the woman laugh with Eames, Ariadne couldn't help but feel a twinge of envy at how easy their relationship seemed to be. It was a bit like watching the couples at old folks homes. They had been together long enough that there was no need for anymore bullshit.

The relaxed aura the woman radiated disappeared as soon as she saw Arthur and Cobb, quick as a candle being snuffed. She stepped away from Eames, retracting into herself. Ariadne could almost see her hackles going up, feel the hostility pouring off her in waves. Clenching the X-Acto knife a little tighter in her hand, Ariadne prepared herself for the fight that was brewing.

"Eames. Vous m'avez promis qu'ils ne seraient pas ici."

An emotion Ariadne had never seen on Eames' face was washing over his features: shame. Stepping towards her, he reached for her hand.

"I know love, but see, the thing is..."

The woman stepped back again, this time reaching a hand towards her jacket, near her rib cage. Arthur and Cobb, who had stood up and were walking towards the confrontation at this point, both stopped, Arthur slowly moving his hand towards the small of his back. Ariadne gripped her tiny, ineffectual knife a little tighter. The small of his back was where Arthur kept his gun. What the hell had Eames done?

"Non. Je ne veux pas les voir, je veux voir Mal. What the hell is going on?"

Shooting a cryptic glare at Arthur, Eames managed to get close enough to grab the woman's hand again, saying, "Look, darling, I know you're upset, but if you just let me explain it will all make sense."

Before he could grab it, the woman backhanded him with her free hand. While before she had been speaking in a tone of manageable anger, Eames' attempt to touch her again had pushed her into apoplectic rage.

"Explain? What the hell could you say, Eames! I didn't come out of hiding to see either of them! Where is she? Where the hell is Mal? And who the hell is the little girl holding a butterknife like she's going to gut someone with it?"

It took Ariadne a moment to realize the woman was referring to her and her X-Acto. Everyone in the room turned towards her, looking at her pathetic attempt at a weapon. Cobb, clutching at his totem as though it were a life vest and this was a flood, was shaking his head slowly. Eames kept trying to edge closer to the woman, and Yusef just looked incredibly confused, eyebrows smoking slightly. Arthur, strangely enough, was looking at the space just to the left of the woman. Every time she moved, he made adjustments to his vision so he was never looking directly at her.

Ariadne looked at the woman again. A range of emotions were battling for dominance on the strange woman's face. Fury had staked blood red flags high on her checks; frustration knit her brow with threads of disappointment, while mulish determination had laid claim to her mouth. In her eyes though... The flash of sorrow that Ariadne thought she had seen disappeared quickly, leaving only a disconcerting coldness.

Turning completely to face her, the woman spoke to Ariadne directly.

"You. Do you know Mal? Mallorie Cobb?"

Only insofar as I know that she tries to kill most of us when Cobb is in the Dream, Ariadne thought. Why is this lady looking for a dead woman?

"Well. In a sense. She was gone before I met her though."

As soon as Ariadne said gone, the everything in the room stood still. The woman, who had practically been vibrating with anger, quieted instantly. Cobb held his totem tighter, closing his eyes briefly. Arthur acquired new tension in his already terse movements, although he still refused to look directly at the woman. Eames ceased his futile attempt to get closer to the woman, instead deciding that the time had come for him to speak. He sounded weary, drained.

"Meredith. Sweet. Lets go outside. Have a cigarette. C'mon love. Please."

Without taking her eyes off Ariadne, the woman answered him, voice devoid of any sort of human emotion.

"No. You have apparently been lying to me since you called me. You told me Mal wanted to see me. That she missed me. If I hear anything that I'm going to believe, I want to hear it from the girl. She's the only one in this room that hasn't lied to me."

Eames turned to Ariadne, voice filled with a particular kind of desperation: that of a man trying to hide a secret from a loved one, but knowing that it is too late.

"Ariadne, please, I'll handle this. You needn't be involved in this, and-"

"Ariadne, is it? Lovely symbolism in that name, isn't there. Look Ariadne, just tell me where Mal has gone to. Please," the woman said, voice cracking slightly, "I want to see Mal."

Something in the woman's tone reminded Ariadne of how she had once sounded, when she lost her mother in the supermarket. Why did Mal mean so much to this woman? If she was so close to Mal, which she seemed to be, shouldn't she have known what happened? And why was she so furious at seeing Arthur and Cobb?

Ariadne didn't see Yusef's befuddled face. She didn't see Cobb's now white knuckled grip on the top as he shook his head. She couldn't see the distress creep onto Arthur's face, and she was blind to the horror rising in Eames' eyes. All she could see were the woman's gray eyes, filled to the brim with emotions to strong to keep in. So, with her small fist loosely gripping the now forgotten X-Acto knife, she told her.

"Mal's dead."

**Translations: (first quote) "You promised me they wouldn't be here." (second quote) "I don't want to see them, I want to see Mal."**


End file.
